More than 800 American energy and Earth science researchers have signed a letter to Donald Trump outlining six steps they’re urging him to take to address human-caused climate change to protect “America’s economy, national security, and public health and safety.” The letter is accompanied by a public change.org petition to “Tell Trump To #ActOnClimate.” Here […]

James Delingpole is an invective-hurling anti-climate science columnist who has candidly admitted that he doesn’t bother to read scientific papers, calling himself a “an interpreter of interpretations.”

Kratom (previously) is a widely used herb that has been very effective in treating opioid withdrawal and other chronic, hard-to-treat conditions — it also became very controversial this year because the DEA decided, without evidence, to class it as a dangerous drug, and then changed its mind (unprecedented!) after a mass-scale petition that included interventions […]

The Boing Boing Store’s Gift Guide is full of ideas for pretty much anyone in your life like hipster ice cub trays, Xbox controllers, Halo Boards, and even diamond necklaces. As always, all products in the Boing Boing Store come at great discounts, too. Shop by price bucket starting at under $20. Under $20:Bloxx Jumbo Ice Trays […]

Unlike traditional lighters, the SaberLight features an electronic plasma beam that’s both rechargeable and butane-free. This sleek lighter is even approved by TSA, so you’ll never be stuck buying lighters you’ll just have to throw away partially used. For some people, like me, this is a pretty big game-changer. The SaberLight’s beam is actually both hotter and cleaner […]

Holiday shopping is in full swing, and the Striiv Touch is one of the best gift ideas I’ve landed on. Its simple design works for females and males, and its wide range of features makes it suitable for even the non-fitness enthusiasts in your life.Unlike traditional fitness trackers, the Striiv Touch also acts as a smartwatch. It […]

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It’s misleading to refer to Watson and Crick’s work as the discovery of DNA. The existence of DNA was shown decades earlier, and the knowledge that it was the carrier of genetic information was established by experiments that predate Watson and Crick’s working out of the structure by at least a few years. Which is not to minimize their contribution at all.

Yep. DNA was discovered almost a century earlier, in 1869, by Friedrich Miescher (not that he or anyone else knew its significance). I remember a few years back when Jim Watson’s genome was sequenced the NYT had a headline about the “Genome of DNA Discoverer Sequenced” and wondered if we could sequence the genomes of 19th century scientists, why didn’t we start with Mendel or Darwin and not a semi-obscure Swiss biochemist like Miescher?

The best part of the discovery of DNA is that it proves that God exists.
Even if you discount the fact that DNA is structured information, (Craig Venter says that DNA is basically “computer code”), the DNA transcription process requires 3 biochemical machines, mitochondria, RNA polymerase and ribosomes,to function. All of these are created FROM DNA, and, without all of these machines working together, DNA transcription cannot work. DNA replication requires mitochondria, helicase and several other enzymes that make up the replisome. All of these are created FROM DNA and without these machines DNA replication cannot function.

You could have argued that it suggests designers’ involvement at some stage, but to say that it *proves* anything like God is quite a stretch. The way we see DNA working now is not necessarily how it originated.